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WA: Rabbi's hidden camera collection found, charges follow

Police found a large collection of tiny cameras when they searched suspended Georgetown Rabbi Barry Freundel's Towson University office, home and a ritual Mikvah bath (which is for women) next door to the synagogue he led in NW Washington.

The cameras were concealed in a tissue box, a clock radio, a computer charger - and it even looks like he had one hidden in a key chain and fan too. Flash drives and memory cards capable of holding 25,000 hours of video and more than 200,000 images were also found, along with pictures of women in the shower area and a handwritten list of names. A tip from a cleaner at the bath alerted police to the camera inside the clock radio there.

62-year-old Freundel's been charged with six misdemeanor counts of voyeurism in connection with filming women in the bath. It's not clear yet if they were Towson students, as Freundel had organized 'educational' trips to the baths for female students, in the past. Investigators have only just begun to analyze the seized devices. Freundel's been an Associated Professor at the university since 2009 and has written on the subject of porn on the Internet.

Freundel's due to appear in D.C. Superior Court November 12th. His attorney has complained about the 'disheveled state' police left the Rabbi's office in but not commented on the charges, but added that 'no-one's minimizing the allegations'.

First lawsuit, by a Georgetown law student. Frankly, I'm surprised it's taken this long.

'A Georgetown University law student is suing the school, Kesher Israel synagogue and the National Capital Mikvah over allegations an Orthodox rabbi secretly recorded her during a ritual bath...'

'The plaintiff says she was taking Rabbi Barry Freundel's Jewish studies class at Georgetown when he suggested she write her research paper on the mikvah ritual and required her to participate in the immersion.
The lawsuit describes Freundel preparing the changing room and telling the plaintiff specifically where to put her clothing, where and how to shower, and what products to use in the shower when she participated in the ritual in early March and again in early April.'